Problematic Internet Use and Co Morbid Psychiatric Symptoms among College Students

Excessive internet use is defined when internet use has become excessive, uncontrolled, time consuming leading to severely disrupting people's lives causing impairment or distress. It creates a heightened level of psychological arousal, resulting in naps, starvation, and limited physical activity, leading to physical and mental health problems like depression, OCD, low family relationships and anxiety. Studies have been conducted among college students as they are vulnerable to Internet addiction than other groups. A quantitative research approach with descriptive research design was adopted among 100 students by purposive sampling technique via Google forms which includes demographic variables, Internet Addiction Test and Perceived Stress Scale by semi structured questionnaires and serotonin level was assessed. Among 100 sample, the level of internet addiction among college students shows that 63 64.3 had moderate level of internet addiction and 35 35.7 had mild level of internet addiction among college students. The level of perceived stress among college students shows that 73 74.5 had moderate stress and 25 25.5 had high perceived stress among college students. Serotonin among college students shows that 87 88.8 had normal serotonin level and 11 11.2 had low serotonin level which is an indicator of depression. As a result of the study the correlation shows the mean score of internet addiction was 51.42±5.74 and the mean score of perceived stress was 23.42±4.29. The calculated Karl Pearson's Correlation Value of r = 0.407 shows a moderate positive correlation between internet addiction and perceived stress which was found to be statistically significant at p 0.001 level. This clearly infers that when the internet addiction among college students increases their perceived stress also increases. Priyadarsini. A | Sherly Anand S "Problematic Internet Use and Co-Morbid Psychiatric Symptoms among College Students" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-7 | Issue-5 , October 2023, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd59989.pdf Paper Url: https://www.ijtsrd.com/medicine/other/59989/problematic-internet-use-and-comorbid-psychiatric-symptoms-among-college-students/priyadarsini-a